I’m not sure if it’s accurate to describe the beginning of 2021 as an unsettling time. We’ve had nearly a year to adjust to the myriad ways in which COVID-19 has upended the way we live and interact with one another. We’ve had four years to understand the combination of authoritarianism, mendacity and ineptitude that defined the Trump Administration.

That means we can’t say our settled expectations have been shaken up by the dismal events of recent weeks. I surely knew it was a lie when President Trump said last May regarding the release of the COVID vaccine: “Our military is now being mobilized so at the end of the year, we’re going to be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly.” I also surely should have seen the events of January 6 coming. My sister warned in 2016 of the similarities between Trump’s movement and the road to Nazi control in Germany, and she’s been right every step of the way. Watching the Capitol last week, my friend Doug messaged me “Reichstag 1933″.

Yet even if I should not have been surprised by current events I still find my mental state to be deeply unsettled. Perhaps the greatest indication of that is my recent drive to get things settled.

I always assumed that if I have a downfall, it will be the result of one of my least admirable traits, procrastination. Faced with difficult choices or unpleasant tasks, I am generally a master of drift. As I see it, ignore a problem long enough and it just may go away.

But lately, I’ve been on something of a tear to address outstanding issues and to resolve persistent problems. Perhaps it is COVID. I fear that if I succumb to the illness I will leave an awful mess to be dealt with. But whatever the reason, I am working my way through issues I have avoided, and finding a certain satisfaction in getting things in order.

One such current issue, that I’ve left drift for many months now, is the fate of my two rams. One, a naturally polled (hornless) white ram is Rumi, named after the 13th century Sufi poet. I have him because Troy and Victoria (my nephew and his wife), when they had plans to live here and build the herd, wanted to breed in a direction that produced more white wool than most of our production had been up until then. Having visited Rumi’s tomb in Konya, Turkey, several times, I felt Troy and Victoria’s choice of name for this ram was fitting. Rumi the poet wrote beautifully on the nature of love. Rumi the ram is an avid lover of his ewes, but he has a gentle disposition. In my imagination, he has a certain Rumi-like sensuality.

The other ram, larger and black with curved horns, is not here by plan at all. I had been contacted by a farm in Massachusetts which was looking for a ram with a classic Karakul look: one born with entirely black wool that will, except for face and legs, turn with age to one or several shades of gray or brownish gray. I reserved one such ram lamb for them. They rejected him, however, when it turned out he had a small cap of white on his forehead that to them destroyed the pure Karakul look.

When the next batch of lambs came around, I chose the one I thought was the best candidate for this other farm: a large totally black ramling with large testicles (a sign he’ll be a good breeder), a classic Karakul Roman nose, and excellent posture. Troy named him Nâzim, after Nâzim Hikmet, a twentieth century Turkish poet, novelist and playwright. For symmetry, I guess.

Unfortunately, by the time Nâzim was ready to sell, the other farm had already purchased a ram. Troy lined up another sale, which ultimately fell through as well. I was stuck with two rams, something we’d always avoided having before to avoid fights for dominance.

The difference between Nâzim and Rumi is more than the difference between black and white. Nâzim has grown considerably larger, and his disposition is far more aggressive. He will dominate two or three food bowls at once, knocking the other sheep out of his way. Increasingly, when humans enter his territory he feels compelled to assert his dominance by charging them. I’ve learned to charge him and dominate him first, but it’s a daily challenge. I must be on watch constantly to fend him off. He is a handsome, noble looking specimen, and he might father many very fine lambs, but he seems increasingly a force of chaos, if not downright insurrection.

Although my long term plan has been to phase out of active farming myself, and the herd was reduced from 70 a year and a half ago to under 30 now, I realized this fall that I’d likely have at least a year before a return to my prior city life was even within the realm of contemplation. I therefore decided to let both rams breed with the ewes, and they did. There are a lot of broad beams milling in the barn these days as the ewes grow pleasingly plumply pregnant. I expect we’ll lamb in February and March, and have lamb for sale again at the end of 2021.

Enter my new found impulse to settle things. Now that the breeding has been accomplished, there is no need for the rams. Keeping them around would risk them breeding with their own offspring, and in Nâzim’s case presents a constant management challenge. I decided to send them off, which meant calling Harry Baldwin, the retired dairy farmer who takes a truckload of livestock up to auction in the North Country every Tuesday, generally to be sold for slaughter.

I called Harry last Saturday and arranged for Tuesday pickup. Then Sunday I got an email from a young woman in Vermont, a Karakul shepherd who has bought from us occasionally over the years, looking for a registered ram to use for breeding and for a couple of ewes. I told her she was quite timely. Had she waited two more days both rams would have been gone. I sent her pictures. She chose Rumi. He is unaware that the hand of Providence has changed his fate.

Gentle Rumi off to greener pastures. Insurrectionist Nâzim off to the knacker’s yard. Excuse me if, in light of recent events, I take a certain grim satisfaction.

WHAT’S AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Cheese pumpkins, $1/lb

Fresh dug horseradish root, $3/lb.

EGGS: $5/doz

MEATS:

CHICKENS: They were quite uniform in size, all just around 6 lbs, a few under. We’ve already had one and the freedom rangers have been what you want them to be, deeply flavorful. They are now frozen. $6/lb. Separately, bags of chicken livers, also $6/lb.

FARM PICKUPS:

Email us your order at farm@turkanafarms.com, and let us know when you’d like to pick up your order. It will be put out for you on the side screened porch of the farmhouse (110 Lasher Ave., Germantown) in a bag. You can leave cash or a check in the now famous pineapple on the porch table. Because I’m now here full time, we’re abandoning regular pick-up times. Let us know when you want your order any day between 10 and 5, and unless there are unusual circumstances we’ll be able to ready it to your convenience. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to call or text at 917-544-6464 or email.

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